


Trust in the Force

by starforged



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Bloodlines Spoilers, F/M, Gen, M/M, Minor Chirrut Îmwe/Baze Malbus, Slow Burn, Spoilers, The Force Awakens AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-09 18:36:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8907505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starforged/pseuds/starforged
Summary: jyn/cassian, "meeting again in another life"If she can turn a kidnapped cargo pilot into a Resistance fighter, who is to say she can’t also turn an unknown prisoner hidden away on Moraband into one either?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ignitesthestars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignitesthestars/gifts).



She dreams of fire sometimes. It illuminates the sky behind her in soft pastels. It doesn’t look like how fire should, and that’s how she knows they’re dreams. But they feel real. The heat, the sand on her knees, his hand in hers. 

She wakes up, and she still feels his skin against hers. She spends hours in bed, flexing her fingers and wondering what the dreams mean.

\--

“You know, I just want to make note that flying into hostile territory to steal from the First Order is a _very bad idea_.”

Jyn feels a grin stretching across her lips with only the smallest thought that perhaps she should have swallowed it down. Her pilot doesn’t seem to really appreciate it, but then, Bodhi has always thought she was a little off. You’d have to be, she thinks, to join up with the Resistance. 

“I thought you lived for this?” She slaps a hand on his shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze.

“No, no I don’t, and we both know I would prefer doing something that kept us out of the fighting. We’re not fighters.” He glances at her, both eyebrows rising up on his forehead. “Well, you are.”

“You’re a fighter too, Bodhi, or you wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m only here because you took my ship and wouldn’t leave me behind.”

Jyn slides herself into the co-pilot’s seat and buckles herself in. Her and Bodhi have been together for two years now, a friendship that began when she held him at gunpoint and demanded he fly her to the coordinates of a Resistance hold out so that she could deliver vital information she had stolen from a First Order officer. He’d resisted. She insisted. With the blaster. 

He still complains about the hole in the floor where his foot had almost been. 

“When I joined with General Organa, I didn’t assume I’d just be a thief.”

She watches her friend, the tense look in his dark eyes, the dirt smudged over brown skin, his hair greasy and unkempt and slopped together, as he flies them into enemy space. Before them sits Moraband. The red planet glares back at them, as if it knew they were coming to take from it. 

“You’re the pilot. I’m the thief.” Jyn leans forward. “This place doesn’t look as guarded as I thought it would be.”

“It looks abandoned.” The ship groans as they slow. “I miss cargo.”

“We still deliver cargo.”

The look Bodhi gives her is dirty. It’s not fair, she guesses, that she dragged him into this. But she needed the ship, she needed the pilot. For all of his griping though, he’s never left her. 

Jyn presses her lips together, hoping to calm herself. Her fingers find the crystal around her neck, the jagged end pressing hard into her palm. It does what it always has: floods her with energy in gentle waves until the fear that buzzes under her skin is barely there. 

“They really couldn’t have picked a better place for a prison,” Bodhi comments as he begins the descent into the planet’s atmosphere. 

It looks abandoned, but their intel has already told them what they need to know the most about Moraband. It was a planet important to the Sith eons ago, and then it was abandoned. It makes sense that the First Order would want to use a place so desolate to bring others in for torture. It gives Jyn the creeps, but Bodhi’s doing enough complaining for the both of them. 

The landing is almost too easy, but she supposes that they figure nobody is going to even believe a forgotten planet on the Outer Rim is going to be the subject of suspicion. There’s also the small possibility that they’re going to be murdered at any second, but she tries to not think about that too much. They get into enough dangerous situations without having to actually talk about the suicidal nature of their work. 

“Jyn, I don’t like you going out there on your own.”

She’s already up and strapping her weapons down, tugging up a scarf to wrap around her mouth to keep the dust out. Red sand has already covered their forward window, obscuring their view of the planet. Getting back off this place isn’t going to be as easy as getting. Bodhi looks between the red view and her. 

“I’ll be quicker on my own. Someone needs to stay with the ship.” She gives him a crooked smile. It’s lost behind the fabric.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he says.

_Me too_. “You always have a bad feeling, Bodhi. If I always listened to it, we’d get nothing done for the Resistance.” She moves to the hangar door, pressing it open. Sand blasts her immediately, causing her to duck her head. “What could go wrong?”

“Everything,” he calls out to her, watching her walk down the platform.

\--

What Jyn is here for is miniscule. It’s ridiculous, actually. She’s looking for a list of prisoners. “From the general herself, Jyn.” If the general herself wants to give her orders, maybe she could have done it. Maybe she could have explained what it is that she’s putting her life on the line for. 

A list of prisoners. 

Who is Leia Organa searching for on this miserable, heavy planet?

Maybe it would have been easier to let her know that so that she could whisk said prisoner away. 

She crouches behind one of the crumbling statues as a trooper walks past her. The wind is blowing harshly, whistling in her ears and obscuring the best parts of her vision. An electricity buzzes in her chest, churning her stomach. This place is no joke. The sooner she gets the information she’s looking for, the sooner her and Bodhi can get as far away from this Sith planet as they can.

She runs a finger over the stone. _Trust in the Force_. 

She’s too old to trust in fairy tales, and yet here she is. Crouching, she runs behind the trooper, sliding in behind another crumbling statue. As long as she doesn’t think about the dark energy, this will be just like any other job. 

“Bodhi,” Jyn whispers softly into her comm piece. “I’m in the Valley.”

“What does it look like?”

She looks down to see a hollow-eyed skeleton staring back up at her. “If the Sith were real, I could see why they’d like this place.”

“I don’t know if I want to see or not.”

The toe of her boot nudges at the skeleton, and a rib crumbles into nothing. She isn’t sure if that means this guy was dead long ago or recently. Either way, she’s sure that Bodhi isn’t going to want to see this. 

“I think I can see the building up ahead. Pieces of it look old, but I can see where they rebuilt,” she says. 

“Okay. So you’ll need to get into a central mainframe to find the data. Do you have the disk to download it onto?”

She pats her pocket, feels the hard disk. “Got it. Where do I go?”

It goes quiet on his end for a few moments. “Second floor. The warden’s office.”

Wedging herself into the rocks, she pulls out the pair of macrobinoculars from the small bag slung across her chest. There are guards, but not nearly as many as she expected. Then again, if there’s a prison escape, where are they going to go? She wouldn’t be caught dead in one of these caves.

Or maybe she will be. She’ll find out soon enough. 

The rocks. Scaling the cliff will give her better access to the building and less access to someone else’s blaster. She likes that idea, would rather choke on sand than choke on laser. The rocks dig back into her skin as she begins climbing, boots barely finding footholds. It’s slow and painful. Sweat builds up on the back of her neck, against the line of her dark hair. It rolls down her back with the effort. 

The list over blaster fire. Sweat over death. Those are easy enough choices. 

She should really think about asking for some compensation at some point. That brings a wry smile to her lips. As if fighting for what’s right isn’t good enough of a payment. 

Voices carry up from the ground, forcing her to hug the wall. One wrong move, one slip, she’ll tumble, rocks will tumble, and they’ll know she’s here. They can’t know she’s here. They’ve lost too many people lately for them to lose her too. 

She takes a deep breath to calm herself. 

_Trust in the Force_.

“I’m one with the Force,” she speaks into the wind. “The Force is with me.”

Her arms are burning by the time she slips inside of a window. Her body feels like it might collapse in on itself. She’s just lucky she’s found herself alone in a dark room because she’s about to slide down a wall and catch her breath. Except she can’t. There’s no time. She needs the list. She needs to get out. She needs to find Bodhi, forced here because of her.

Jyn dusts herself off, ready to find out what’s on the other side of the door--

“Who’s there?”

Her mouth goes dry. Her fingers are on the blaster before her brain can catch up with her body. She pulls it and trains it on the only other person in the room, the one she didn’t see when sliding into the window. He’s pushed back into a corner, strapped down to a chair, shrouded in shadow.

“You’re not ominous at all,” she says to him.

He stares back at her with a carefully blank expression. “It wasn’t much of a choice.” His accent is heavy.

It’s familiar. 

She takes a step forward, still holding the blaster on him. “I feel as though I might be intruding on something here.”

“No, no. What would give you that impression?” He wiggles his fingers at her, the corners of his mouth tugging into a deep frown. 

She can’t ignore him now. Not when he could sell her out for his own freedom. That’s what she tells herself as she comes closer, drops her arms, and inspects his chair. His dark eyes follow her around the room. He must be able to see her more clearly than she can see him, and that’s unnerving. 

“There’s a switch.”

“To free you?”

“One would hope.”

“If I do--”

“I don’t want to rush your negotiations, but they will come back,” he tells her. 

“Right.” Still, she hesitates.

His frown deepens. “I am in no place to turn on my rescuer. I have no love for the Order. Help me, and I’ll help you.”

If she can turn a kidnapped cargo pilot into a Resistance fighter, who is to say she can’t also turn an unknown prisoner hidden away on Moraband into one either? It sounds terrible in her head the second the thought springs up.

Even so, she finds the switch, releasing the bands around his wrists and ankles. He breathes a sigh of relief, slumping for a second as he rubs his wrists. 

“Thank you.” There’s honesty in his words. She doesn’t trust him, but she trusts his gratitude. 

She shoves the hand not holding her gun out at him. “I’m Jyn.”

He blinks up at her before sliding his hand into hers. His palm is sweaty, his grip firm. Something in her skips a beat and her chest constricts.

“Cassian. If you get me out of here, I will help you with whatever it is you came to do.”

But she’s still on the way his hand feels in hers, an instant recognition. She almost imagines it, but his thumb brushes over a knuckle before he drops her hand like it’s on fire. His brow knits together. 

“Welcome aboard, Cassian.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh. it seems like there were SO MANY PLEAS FOR A CONTINUATION that
> 
> i decided to do that
> 
> :'D

She knows that hand.

Now isn’t the time to think about how she knows a hand. Anyone’s hand, for that matter. It’s a strange thing to focus on. But she stares at her fingers for a moment, still feeling where he had touched her. 

“I suppose there wouldn’t be a lot of time for questions, is there?” Jyn finally asks him, lifting her gaze to his. He’s looking at her like he can’t quite figure her out.

Fair enough. 

“No.” Cassian rubs his wrists. “This place is not somewhere you want to spend any considerable amount of time.”

It makes her wonder how much time he’s been here. Her eyes slide to the chair. “Got it.”

If she tells him where Bodhi is, there is a significant possibility he’ll incapacitate her pilot and steal her ship. On the other hand, he could also be a threat. Not specifically to her, but her mission. She does better on her own, and there isn’t much need for a tagalong to download data. 

“I didn’t expect to rescue anyone,” Jyn says. “But I am here for something.”

“I can help. Welcome aboard, remember?”

Why did she say that? At the time, it had felt right. It still does, but that’s a part of her she shouldn’t trust, like she spoke from a dream. The real her is wary of new people. She gets in, she gets out. Her friendships are few and far between. 

“I’m looking for the Head Overseer’s office. I’m looking for a list.”

“Of prisoners?”

He’s smart, at least. Jyn nods. There’s an uncertain look on his face, as if he can’t quite understand why anyone would come here for a list of prisoners. She’s not sure either, but that’s a story for later. 

“I know where it’s at.”

“The office?”

“Yes.” His tone quickly becomes exasperated, and she pulls herself indignantly. 

“If I help you get into the office and back out of the prison again, will you get me off of this planet?”

She bites her lip. “I will drop you off anywhere that you need to be taken.”

Their agreement is a silent one, an affirmative nodding of heads. She finds that, even though she knows nothing about him, he settles her. Which makes her feel unsettled. This is a trap, without a doubt. And the second she can manage it, she should ditch him. She should use him as a distraction. She should go back empty handed and tell the General she’s sorry, but maybe she should know why this list is so important.

_Who are you looking for, Leia Organa?_

His bare feet are much quieter against the stone floors than her boots as he takes the lead and makes it to the door. His eyes are dark as he stares at it. She wants to know what he’s thinking, what he’s preparing for. His brow furrows.

“Are you ready?” he asks in a soft voice.

“For what, exactly?”

“The guards. I’m assuming you are somewhat decent with the blaster, unless you want to hand it over.”

Jyn gives him a wry smile. “Aren’t blaster shots going to lead to the exact opposite of what I want?”

It’ll alert people. But then, she just released a prisoner. They’re already going to be alerted. 

Jyn shoves the blaster back into its holster and cracks the knuckles of her fingers. He watches her with an amused kind of curiosity, one eyebrow arched up. She can see a smile playing behind the unruly beard that hides his mouth. 

“How good are you with your hands?” Jyn asks him.

Cassian shrugs. “They’ve never complained.”

The way he says it, though, leaves little room for interpretation. She has met other men who have said that line to her before, and it’s always had a double meaning. She’s always known it was a way to hit on her. When Cassian says it, there’s unashamed truth in the words. They don’t complain because they are dead. 

She can respect that.

“Now.”

The door opens with a _whoosh_ to reveal a darkly-lit hallway. Numerous other doors line the hallway. Two guards lounge lazily against either side of the interrogation room’s entrance. Their bodies catch up with their minds only a couple of seconds after the door opens.

“What the--”

“How did you--”

“Who--”

Cassian goes for the neck, his familiar hands sliding along the guard’s skin until he’s got the man by the chin and the back of his neck. The snap is audible. It sparks down Jyn’s spine in an electric current, but she ignores it as she throws herself at the other guard before his pistol comes up. His throat bobs against her arm as he struggles, throws her into the wall behind them to shake her off. She doesn’t let go, her grip growing tighter until she can lower the unconscious man to the floor. 

The effort leaves her breathless, and there’s a pain in her shoulder that she’s sure is going to be a problem later on when the adrenaline has worn off.

“We should store them in the room,” Cassian suggests.

She helps him drag the bodies into his torture cell. “Their clothes aren’t going to fit well, but it might be prudent to, you know.”

“Rob our victims?”

Jyn makes a face, swiping a strand of her dark hair out of her face. It’s come loose from her bun, damp with sweat - effort and nerves all tangled together. “Something like that.”

She watches his toes wiggle against the floor while he thinks. It’s such a weird thing to focus on, so she watches his face instead. He doesn’t seem to have noticed that, at least. “I guess from a distance it could work.”

“From a distance is all I need,” Jyn says. “From a distance like this, I’m covered in sand, and I’m pretty sure you look like you haven’t bathed in weeks.”

“Two,” Cassian grunts in return as he kneels beside the guy he killed. 

She’s certainly smelled worse. They undress the guards in silence, the impending seconds ticking over them. But once the clothes are in their hands, they look at each other with uncertainty. 

“I don’t think we have time for modesty, either,” she says softly. 

“I know.” His lips purse, but he nods anyway. 

They make quick work of changing, but Jyn is far more careful with her clothes than he is. There are far too many secrets sewn into her pockets. She squats in just a pair of pants, topless as she roots through her own pockets. Cassian’s checking out the blaster he’s acquired from the guard when he finally looks over at her. 

Her face heats up under his stare, her mouth curving into a frown. There’s a sharp snap on the end of her tongue, ready to be unleashed. 

“That’s a kyber crystal.”

It’s her necklace that he’s staring at. “Yeah.”

“Are you a Jedi?”

Jyn snorts as she stands back up, tugging on the guard’s shirt. It billows around her, but she pulls it tight in the back and ties it into a knot. “Not likely. Do I look like a Skywalker to you?” She shrugs on the vest. 

“Luke Skywalker isn’t the only Jedi,” Cassian argues. “Let’s go.”

She falls into step behind him, and only after tries to figure out why it is that she’s following him. _He knows where to go. It saves you time_.

Her nostrils flare at the force of air she breathes out. Everything about this rings stupid, and she’s going to get so much flack for it if she makes it off of this tomb planet alive. 

He moves at a slow pace, clearly favoring his left leg. A million questions buzz in her mind. She forces herself to match him step by step on his right side, her hands by her side. She’s been in dark places before, done crazy things, but there’s something now that strikes her with something she tries to forget about.

Fear. 

There’s an apprehension that tries to choke her out, and she can’t quite figure out why. 

“I’m one with the Force, the Force is with me.” The words have always been a comforting prayer for her, for as long as she can remember. An ease moves through her, like a gentle wave. Cassian gives her a strange look, and she’s sure he’s still thinking about her crystal, still wondering if she might have been lying about being a Jedi.

But Jyn’s never even met one. She still isn’t even sure if Luke Skywalker is _real_. 

They pass another set of guards outside of a room. Screams fill the space in the hallway. Cassian keeps his gaze forward, but Jyn can’t help but look at the door that separates them all from the horrors within. His hand is on her wrist, his grip painfully tight and hidden by the bulk of her body so the other guards don’t see. 

One gives her a faint smile and a shrug. The other gives them a hard look. Nobody asks questions though. 

She keeps walking at her partner’s assistance. 

“This is a prison,” he reminds her.

“And I just rescued _you_ from it,” she hisses in return. “I don’t intend to jeopardize my goals here.” Her eyes narrow to a glare, the corners of her mouth turning down. “I won’t hesitate to put you down either, if I have to.”

He gives her a considering look. “I believe you.”

_I believe you._

The words stun her into silence for a reason she can’t name. Instead, she sighs, and he takes that as a cue to keep quiet for now. His grip moves from her wrist to her elbow, guiding her silently as they walk through the halls of the upper floor. The hallway spills out into a crumbling, large common room. Voices lift out to them, random chatter about the weather, about a prisoner transport coming in in the morning, about the gruel that got served for lunch. 

Jyn pushes Cassian back against the wall gently, her arm across his chest. It’s more of a symbolic hold than force, but he allows it with ease. 

“What?”

“Wait. We can’t just walk into a group of guards in stolen uniforms.”

The corners of his mouth lift in something of a smirk. “Haven’t you ever lived on the edge, Jyn?”

“Is this a challenge?”

There’s a light in his eyes that’s fleeting, there one second and gone the next. She’s sure she’s imagined it. The light makes him seem younger, like he’s joking. And then that dark shadow descends down, shrouding him again. 

“On the other side of this room is where the office is.” He rubs his mouth, fingers tangling in his beard. “That’s where they brought me after the cells. To get there--”

“We have to get through the guards.”

He’s already taking his shoes off. “Just don’t get me shot.”

“What?”

He removes his shirt. His ribs stick out uncomfortable against his skin, the area of his stomach growing hollow. She remembers what that was like, how it felt. 

“You’re a creative guy.” 

He puts his hands behind his back, and she searches herself for a pair of cuffs to slap back onto his wrists. When the light comes on, pink and fuzzy and humming with electricity, she slips the key into his palm. 

“The blaster, don’t forget it.”

She shoves it into the waistband of his guard issue pants. As long as she’s behind him and doesn’t let anyone get too close to them, they’ll never know it’s there. 

This is such a gamble, not only of her life, but his and Bodhi’s as well. She swallows the anxiety, and pushes Cassian forward before he can say anything else. He hisses and stumbles forward. A few heads turn into their direction, putting a spotlight of scrutiny on Jyn. 

“Keep moving, prisoner,” she snaps.

He tries to turn in her hands, a snarl on his face, but she cuffs him on the side of the head. A few guards laugh. 

“Having trouble there?” one calls out.

“Nothing I can’t handle.” Her grin is something of a nightmare, all teeth. She feels like a wild animal in a zoo being provoked. 

_I’m one with the Force, the Force is with me_. 

The guy saunters up to her, big and beefy, with thick blond hair and a mean little smile. His blue eyes are small and malicious. She continues to grin. Cassian ducks his head and mutters something under his breath.

“You new here, girlie?”

“Came in last switch.” Her and Bodhi had kept close watch on guard shifts. Every month, they would trade the guards out. Most of the time, it was necessary for numbers. Accidents, as the Order put it, were frequent on Moraband. She suspects it’s far more than that. 

Last switch was a week ago. 

“Huh, me too.” He leans in closer, sniffing. “I don’t remember you.”

“How’s that my problem?”

Cassian makes another noise that she’s sure is a laugh. 

“I like to make a habit--”

“If you don’t mind, I have a prisoner to transport,” Jyn cuts him off, pushing her shoulder against his hulking form to move him aside. 

A guard hoots and throws a pair of dice at Meathead. “No woman here is gonna care about you.”

“Keep it calm, Jyn.”

She’s pretty sure that’s Cassian talking to her, but it sounds so much like the voice in her head that she can’t be sure. 

“He’s not _going_ anywhere,” the man huffs angrily. 

One hand wraps around Jyn’s and tugs. The other lands on Cassian’s shoulder and shoves him forward. His leg is already bad, his hands in a pair of cuffs. Jyn is so much smaller than this dick that he’s able to easily force her back so that she’s facing his wide, pink face. Cassian tumbles, and with him, the blaster. 

Every single body in the room goes still, but they’re not sure where they should be looking: at the weapon, at the prisoner already undoing his bindings, or the idiot who decided to mess with Jyn.


	3. Chapter 3

She’s shocked enough by her current events that she can’t even pretend to look shocked. Her face is blank, her mind in a whir on how to escape from the situation. She’ll have to abandon the mission. She’ll have to abandon Cassian. 

In this brief, horrifying situation, Jyn feels that all of her chances are spent. 

It lasts a moment. The briefest of seconds. And then rationality wins - in a way. It’s long enough to get the room to breathe, for Cassian’s fingers to go to work on his cuffs, for her elbow to shift and move into a position for her to aim it into this hulk’s chest. His breath sucks in like a hole in the hull of a ship. He bends just enough for the heel of her hand to collide with his nose. A sickening crack fills the air.

It breaks the spell. 

Cassian’s on his feet before she’s done with her howling goon. His fingers are on her wrist at the same time as the alarms blares. Jyn fumbles behind him as they run, until the blaster is in her hand and she fires returning shots. One whizzes too close to her face, singes her hair. 

She dreams of fire, and the shot brings her back to a dream that feels sickeningly real. 

“Bodhi!” Jyn hisses with an increased sense of urgency. 

Cassian shoots her a look as he ducks around a corner. There’s chaos in the form of a small stampede of prison guards. 

She decides that her pilot is taking entirely _too long_ to answer her. _“Bodhi!”_

“I just want an easy transport job, Jyn,” he finally says into her ear. “We take one thing to another place and drop it off and we call it a job well done.”

Jyn watches Cassian shake his head at her, narrowed gaze of suspicion a warning to lower her voice. The level of understanding that continues to pass between them is honestly a cause for concern. It makes her uncomfortable, like she wants to shed her skin and hide. 

“Jyn?”

It was the same feeling that she felt when she met Bodhi, a tug and pull relationship that came with relative ease.

She has never been at ease with anyone in her life. That was how she survived.

“Just be alert. Take care of yourself.” 

_Leave_ , is what she meant. It’s what she always meant when she told him that. If she didn’t come back, if she endangered them both, he couldn’t be caught.

Bodhi would break.

Jyn would not. 

It’s as simple as that, honestly. The Resistance has to be protected at all costs. 

Deeper down, though, she cares. They just didn’t talk about that.

“Oh, and we’re going to have a guest.”

Jyn cuts the line before an avalanche of questions threaten to bury her and Cassian somewhere in the desert. 

They duck in a corner as more shots are fired. The lights dim and flicker back to life in time with the alarm. She leans out first, fires a shot, hits a guy in his kneecap. The agonized scream is a welcome respite. Her victim trips up another guard, who scatters across the floor. 

“The office is right ahead!” Cassian points down the hallway, to a large and secure door. 

“I need that information,” is all she says. 

“We’re a little stuck here.”

Understatement. 

_I’m one with the Force, and the Force is with me._

They’re outnumbered. Hideously outnumbered. They’ll be overrun any second now, and that’ll be the end of her. No, that’s not true. They’re not going to kill her or Cassian. They’ll be taken in alive, questioned. He’s a prisoner being interrogated. Her teeth grind together. 

If she gets caught, there’s no guarantee that she can escape again. Besides that, Bodhi will leave her behind. Or he’ll get caught, too, because he _won’t_ leave her behind. He’s a bleeding heart. 

Jyn leans her head back against a crumbling wall as Cassian takes a shot, two, three. 

“There’s a vent,” she whispers. He looks up to where her line of gaze if fixed. “We can get into the vents.”

“They’ll know we’re in the vents.”

“I’m trying to save your life here.”

“I do not want to sound flippant about that, but it’s a terrible idea.”

They don’t have the time, but they stare each other down, hoping the other will break. He doesn’t present another option to her, but she thinks she’s seeing something flickering in there, like he’s trying. The problem is, they’re out of time to try. 

“I’ll lead them away,” Cassian finally says. A darkness descends around him, clouding his gaze, but lifting his shoulders. It’s almost a sacrifice, Jyn recognizes. It’s also self-preservation. He doesn’t trust her that much. “The vents are a death trap for two of us, and I know my way around here well enough.”

More questions tumble to the top of the pile. She hopes he makes it out of here so that she can pick him apart and satisfy some of her more urgent curiosities. 

There’s this pit in the bottom of her stomach, like she’s actually _worried_. Maybe she is. For herself, of course. And for Bodhi. She doesn’t have room in her for a stranger.

“Help me up first, it’ll be quicker.” First, though, Jyn reaches in her pockets and pulls out a grenade. With a feral grin, she activates the weapon with a soft beep that’s easily covered by the alarm and throws it into the hall. 

There’s a simple sigh of resignation from her new partner as he hoists her up without hesitation. 

Jyn pushes the vent covering out of her way with a grunt, pulling herself up with a little strain. More arm days, she thinks to herself. She’s going to get out of here and do more arm days. Flipping onto her stomach, she stares down at him. They have about ten more seconds. 

“My ship is a little outside the compound. Bodhi Rook. Tell him Jyn Erso sent you.”

Cassian gives her the briefest, sharpest nod she’s ever received in her life before he’s gone.

Jyn hesitates before turning herself around in the vent. She watches the explosion creep down their hallway and envelope his shadow. She breathes in smoke and fire and metal. She listens to screams with a sense of satisfaction. 

She’s never given out her name before, except to Bodhi. The Resistance calls her other names, different codes, a selection of numbers that make her sound more like a droid than a human. It’s better that way. Maybe she should have given Cassian her numbers before her name, but Bodhi will trust Cassian more this way if she doesn’t return. 

And that’s the last thought she gives the situation. She still has a mission to complete, an office to raid, and an escape route that seems nigh impossible. Good odds.

She relies on the quick scan of the area she had with Cassian to guide her to the Warden’s office, letting the chaos below her cover up the noises she’s making overhead. There’s no time to be slow and steady in this race. What if the Warden is in his office? What if it’s already guarded now that she’s alerted them to intruders? 

But if she was a guard, or the Warden, she wouldn’t assume a break in would be for paperwork, of all things. She’d be concerned with her top prisoners, the ones who necessitate a break out. 

She wonders if they went back to Cassian’s holding cell to find him. She wonders if he’s one of those prisoners or if he’s nobody. 

The view through one of the vents below her now shows what looks like it could be an office. It’s cold, clean, and relatively quiet. She lowers herself to her stomach, slowing her breathing as she presses her face as close to the slots as she’s willing to get without pale skin beginning to poke through like putty. She waits for a sign of life for as long as she can manage. 

That’s about three seconds. It’s enough time to determine nobody’s there.

At least, that’s what she’ll tell her commander back at the base.

_Sir, yes, I waited and checked. No I didn’t help a prisoner escape. Perhaps the prison isn’t as good as everyone says it is._

They won’t believe her, but she doesn’t care.

Jyn slams her fists into vent screen hard enough to rattle up to her shoulders. A sharp pain shoots across her nerves. She slams against until the metal groans unhappily and clatters out of its place, to the floor below her. She waits another three seconds, but there’s no sound of alarm.

In the room, at least. 

She drops to her feet, wincing as her ankles and knees absorb the impact. Bad form. She’s getting sloppy. 

_This is too easy_. 

“I had wondered what it is you were after.” 

Jyn stiffens, gaze swivelling to the older woman sitting at the desk in the back of the room. A blaster is aimed at her. 

“You wouldn’t be the first worthless assassin I’ve had to deal with,” the Warden continues. “But I am surprised I’ve had two within a week.”

\--

The heat on Cassian’s back isn’t unfamiliar to him. He’s been in tight situations before, and he’s definitely had one or two face offs with a grenade. But he’s never been in this tight of a situation. It’s almost impossible. 

He also thought that being strapped into that interrogation chair was impossible, and here he is. He’s half dressed, worn out, and practically weaponless, but here he _is_. His chances aren’t spent up just yet. It’s much preferable than the chair. 

An ache runs about his thigh into his hip are he runs. It’s not as bad as his shoulder, though, the one that had been dislocated when he’d been caught. Damn Kay, malfunctioning at the wrong moment. The droid is almost more trouble than he’s worth. _Almost_. Now that Cassian has the opportunity, he feels like leaving Kay behind is the wrong idea. 

Cassian turns a corner and finds the turbolift. The plans are memorized, completely etched into his brain after weeks of studying it. Two floors down, there’s a droid parts storage room. Kay has nothing to offer in terms of parts - he’s old, made of scavenged pieces applied to an old Imperial Droid model. If he’s lucky, the droid hasn’t been scrapped. They’ll want to scrub its memory chip for information on its owner. 

That’s almost why he can’t leave Kay behind.

The other parts are him being a little attached to the malfuctioning hunk of junk. 

Two floors down, three doors to the right. A blaster pistol in his hand.

Get Kay. Get out. His mission failed, but there will be more chances. 

Get Kay. Get out. Find the pilot.

He just doesn’t know if he can actually trust this Jyn. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm the slowest, sorry guys (i thought the last update had been a lot sooner than this)

Kay sits like a rag doll on the floor in the corner, one part of its upper body sprawled across a duracrate. It’s almost a comical sight, but Cassian isn’t in a humorous mood. If Kay is done, then he’s going to have to take its memory chip with him. Get it a new body. 

The droid almost definitely needs the upgrade anyway. 

The optical sensors that serve as Kay’s eyes are dead. It doesn’t exactly inspire hope inside of Cassian. All this way, a trail of dead bodies, and too many aches to name, and his droid is out. He leans over Kay, carefully cupping its lumped head.

The lights that flash in his face are almost blinding. He hisses and stumbles back, shutting his eyes. “Shit!”

“Cassian! I _am_ sorry. I couldn’t be sure who you were at first,” Kay says. 

Hunching over, Cassian rubs his eyes. “So you blinded me?”

“Seemed like the best response at the time. I’ve been pretending. It isn’t fun.”

A tiniest quirk of muscle twitches to life at the corner of his mouth. Pretending isn’t fun for Kay, but at least the droid was able to do it. “You’ve been pretending to be out of commission this whole time?”

“It has been over 100 hours, to be precise. I lost count at 100. That also wasn’t fun.”

Days. Cassian’s been here for days. It felt like centuries, and his body doesn’t disagree with that assessment. He’s lucky he isn’t dead. He’s lucky they didn’t pursue the matter of Kay. 

Joints creak as Kay gets to its full height, hovering over Cassian by a foot at least. The droid’s hull didn’t seem any less battered than usual, chest plate made of two fused together pieces of ship scrap. Cassian looks his friend over anyway, to assess damage. A missing finger, easily replaced. There’s a shine on the upper left arm, where he long ago sanded off the faded Imperial logo, as if someone was trying to figure out what had been there. Deciding that everything’s fine, he pats the droid on the chest.

“We’re getting out of here, Kay.”

“That seems rather unlikely. There are alarms on each floor. I assume that is your doing. The likelihood of us getting out of here alive--”

Another pat, but louder. It’s not going to do anything to actually faze the droid, but it does cut Kay off before his numbers rant begins. Usually, Cassian relies on those numbers. Now? Now, he doesn’t have anything to lose either way. He stays, he dies. He gets caught, he dies.

There’s the smallest, briefest chance of him gaining his freedom. 

“I might have made a friend,” Cassian continues. “So we have a ride out of here.”

“You don’t make friends,” the droid points out.

The two stare at each other, but it’s not like he can ascertain anything important from a face that expresses no emotions. There does come a slight leak of exhaust that sounds awfully like a human sigh of exasperation. 

“You don’t.”

“No more arguing, Kay.”

If a droid could pout, Kay would. 

“What would you like me to do, then?” Kay asks. 

Cassian gives it a pointed look.

“Oh no.”

“I know that it scrambles you, but I need you to interface with a junction.”

“I am not that kind of droid.”

“You are not any kind of droid. That was your only saving grace these past few days.”

The arms droop low, dangling in the air as if their were loose wires instead. That is definitely a pout. 

“What is it that I must look for?”

“How we can disable the alarms, a way out, anything useful.”

“An armory?”

“Not that useful, Kay.”

“I would be remiss in not pointing out the obvious. We are breaking out of a prison. Weapons would be useful.”

Cassian raises his eyebrows at the droid. It’s an argumentative thing, a personality glitch. It keeps Cassian sane.

“Systems first, then weapons.”

\--

Jyn holds her hands up, keeping her gaze trained on the Warden. An assassin. It’s not hard for Jyn to connect the dots, really. That’s what the new companion she picked up must have been, a poor assassin. General Organa was going to give her hell, assuming she got out of here with her life. 

The Warden stands. She’s not much taller than Jyn herself, maybe a couple of inches. Younger than her first impression. Definitely younger than Leia Organa, blonde hair not yet touched by gray. It’s pulled back in a loose bun, but a carefully arranged one. It tells Jyn that she wants to appear softer than she is. An illusion, maybe, make people who would underestimate her make a mistake.

She’s not going to make _that_ particular mistake. 

“Who sent you?”

Jyn tilts her head, silent. 

The Warden’s smile is brittle. “Don't I have a right to know?”

She shrugs. “I really don't care.”

There are no good words said for this place, so she can only imagine how many enemies the Warden has made during her tenure as overseer here. If it's the Resistance, well, she can't blame them. Even self-proclaimed good guys do bad things. That's how wars are won. But she's not high level enough to know about assassination attempts, and if Cassian belongs to the Resistance, she's never heard of him.

“Your friend didn't talk either.”

“I don't have friends, ma'am. Liabilities.”

A lie, but if Bodhi is brought in, Jyn can't make him seem important. Better to lay the foundations now before the torture begins. 

The worst part is being so close to a victory and knowing she's not going to get it. It's like having a hot meal placed in her hands and then someone knocking the bowl into the dirt.

If Jyn knew what she was looking for, maybe this would have been easier.

“Then an incompetent employer.”

“Sometimes.”

General Organa is more than capable. Jyn, for some reason, trusts her. What she does not trust are people, armies, and women with blasters pointed directly at her face.

The barrel moves. Not far, though. Just from her face to a leg, and she assumes it’s aimed at a kneecap. Smart. 

“What if we made a deal?”

She owes Cassian nothing. If he’s Resistance, he knew what he was getting into.

“I’m listening.” The blaster stays aimed at her leg, but there’s an air of curiosity surrounding the Warden now. She’s intrigued. Jyn needs intrigue and little questions. A datapad for the life of her would-be assassin is nothing. 

_I’m one with the Force, and the Force is with me._

“I helped your assassin escape, and I can tell you where he went.” Sort of. It’s not a real betrayal, she tells herself. It’s not real if she doesn’t know his exact location. As long as it gets the Warden out of the room, as long as it gets her away from Jyn.

There are fine white lines in the lips of the Warden as they purse angrily. This is not expected, which means the guards know there are intruders - there’s a jailbreak - but they have no idea who it is. Clumsy idiots, all of them. 

“In exchange for what?” she spits.

Jyn shrugs casually, letting the mantra repeat over and over in her mind. She needs to be relaxed. “You leave this room and forget I’m here.”

It’s a gamble.

It’s such a gamble, but Jyn has nothing else. It’s like the Warden can smell that bit of desperation that hasn’t been locked behind her chant. Maybe the desperation comes from being asked to be left alone in the office, where anything could be taken and looted. But neither of them know exactly what it is that Jyn’s looking for, not really, and that’s all she has going for her.

A thief has to be lower on the list of things bothering the Warden than the man who tried to kill her. 

Jyn wonders what it is he attempted. How close he got. Whether he’s gotten free yet. If Bodhi is going to leave without her.

If she’s going to die at the hands of this woman.

“Where is he?”

“He told me he was on his way to the hangar. He’s a pilot, apparently.”

The string of curses that drip like poison from the Warden’s lips are incredibly impressive. Her mouth curls into a sneer, teeth exposed. “I knew I should have had that droid decommissioned.”

Jyn thinks that maybe her deal is about to be taken, when the blaster raises to her face again. Shit. 

“Thank you,” the Warden tells her none too pleasantly.

And then the lights cut. 

Jyn pitches herself forward and rolls. The bolt is the only light in the room for a brief second, sliding past her and scorching the carpet instead. Her heart is pounding so hard in her chest that she thinks she’s going to puke. That was too close. She’s been in close calls, but this one was too close. 

She’s an idiot. 

Another shot rings out, to her left. 

The Warden spots her, aims, and fires in the light of her previous bolt.

“I should have decommissioned that droid!” 

The bolt misses, but only barely. There’s a ringing in Jyn’s ears, her brain numb. She smells scorched hair. Too close, _too close._ She finally remembers the blaster she has tucked away, pulls it out, and fires in the direction of where she _thinks_ the Warden is going to be. Another curse, but it sounds like she’s just fine. A pity. The woman is going to cause trouble later, for the Resistance. But through the haze of her blown-out ears, she can hear what sounds like steps. Running, maybe. Carelessly, she throws off another shot. Better safe than sorry, in case the Warden is thinking of running towards her.

Jyn launches herself at the desk, a light stick in her hand. It cracks, and a faint blue haze covers the room. The door is open, a gaping maw into the darkness of the hall. She has to tear her gaze away from the pin dots of light and the yelling that mean guards. 

The desk is tidy, organized. That doesn’t help Jyn figure out what it is that she needs. She throws drawers open, until she spots a few datapads. A shiver runs through her body. She needs to leave _now._ Every cell in her body is telling her to go. Go go go. 

The datapads get shoved into her vest pockets. 

Her head aches, and her ears feel like they’re about to pop. 

She needs a vacation after this botched mission. 

She stares into the darkness again. That way isn’t the right way. That way is going to lead to prison or death. With a sigh, Jyn shoots out the office glass. 

Only way out is down. 

The sun glares out at Jyn when she fights past the shutters she breaks apart to fit through. Hot air blasts her. With the butt of the blaster, she breaks more pieces of glass and watches it glitter in the air before hitting the desert floor below. It’s too far. It’s way too far, but from her, it’s a straight shot through the valley of tombs and to her kriffing ship, and that’s the way she’s going to go.

_I’m one with the Force, and the Force is with me_.

Jyn drops into the sand in silence, swallowing her screams. Good thing, too, because sand tastes awful. Even with her mouth clenched tightly closed, it still gets in and settles on her tongue. Her whole body feels like it’s on fire upon impact, and she isn’t sure if that’s because the sand and sun are cooking her alive or because she’s likely shattered everything in her body. Her fingers get lost in the turning ground before she can finally get a good enough grip to pull herself to her feet. An ankle and a knee protest, but she ignores them. She can be injured later. 

Right now, an entire prison is on the lookout for her and her little assassin friend.


	5. Chapter 5

Bodhi has experienced entirely too many things since first starting this adventure with the Resistance. Bodhi was not a military man. He’d been a cargo flyer for a small company, nice place, decent pay. It was just him, after all. It’d always been just him, an orphan from a post-war era that wasn’t too kind to the small people. 

And then Jyn had found him on his ship, bleeding, panting, blaster pointed at his head. It was natural to resist. There was _a blaster pointed at his head_ , but he had a job and this wasn’t even his ship. He’d get in trouble. 

_“Seriously?” She said it with a lopsided smirk, her voice all exasperation and pain and desperation._

He’d known it then, when he saw her face and looked into her eyes to see fire staring back at him. He knew that he belonged with her, as if something was reaching out through the universe and reminding him that they were tethered. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling. It still isn’t, but he had followed the instinct anyway. 

His fingers drum unhappily along the dash. He knows the difference between actual interference on comms and when Jyn cuts him off, and she definitely cut him off. That was - he isn’t even sure of how long ago. He isn’t sure he should even still be on this planet or in this ship. He’s tried calling her ten times, but nothing. 

It’s his leg now, the heel of his boot creating a rhythm against the floor as he waits. No, he shouldn’t wait. Maybe she’s hurt. Maybe she’s dead. 

There are safety measures in place. Not ones the Resistance has ever drilled into him, but Jyn herself. Death before betrayal, she murmured to him one night over too many drinks. 

Bodhi stares down at the blaster in his hand, curls his fingers tightly over it, and then climbs out of the pilot’s seat. Okay. Okay, he’ll check to see if she’s out there. And then he’ll go, before death or betrayal or anything else becomes an option. But there’s a rolling in his gut that tells him this isn’t it. 

He’s experienced plenty since joining a war he’s still not sure of, that’s played in secret behind a curtain while the Republic rebuilds itself. Still…

When he opens the door of his ship only to reveal a very tall, very mangled corpse of a droid, half dragging Jyn of all people, while a half dressed man with an emptiness in his gaze stares back at him - well. 

“You’re not the secret information, are you?” Bodhi’s gaze rakes from the man to Jyn, who glares up at the _thing_ holding her.

“No,” she snaps at the same time as the man, though his voice is calmer, cooler. 

“Well, I could be secret information,” the metal beast comments. There’s almost a biting sigh at the end of it, but Bodhi thinks that if he tries to follow that thread, he’s not going to be able to fly them all off this planet. “There is a lot in my databanks now.”

A battered, golden head turns towards the man, lights flickering. It’s a glare. It’s what Bodhi thinks is a glare, and there is not enough time to figure this out. And yet he stands there, mouth agape, even as the whizzing sound of shots rings in the hot desert air. 

Of course they were followed. 

“You can let go of me now,” Jyn insists.

The droid listens and she drops with a hiss. It’s enough to get Bodhi moving again, as he drops down to where she’s rubbing a hand furiously at her ankle. 

“I--”

“We don’t have time for this,” the man declares. “Inside. Now.”

“I don’t take orders from you,” Bodhi says. Despite the pain on her face, there’s a slip of a smirk on Jyn’s face that reminds of him of their first meeting. He is, even now, incredulous in the face of terrifying people attempting to commandeer his ship. 

The droid steps over the two of them and makes his way inside. “You better if you want to live.”

“They’re both not wrong,” Jyn tells Bodhi as she lets him help her up. One arm is around her waist as he hoists them both up with an obvious groan. He is, after all, not much of a soldier. The look she gives him is one he knows well: later.

The man strides into the ship and closes the hatch. “I’ll take her.”

Hesitation again. On one hand, handing over reigns of his ship is an utterly terrible idea. He knows terrible ideas. One of them is currently resting against him with more weight than even he thinks she realizes. Jyn can definitely handle herself.

On the other hand, Jyn - and he can’t emphasize it enough - is a terrible idea brought to life. 

“It’s fine, Bodhi. I said we’d have a guest.”

Bodhi looks at the metal creature and bites back a sigh. _A_ guest. He should have known better. Who picks up guests in the middle of a desert prison anyway?

* * *

Jyn leans against Cassian as Bodhi hurries back to the cockpit to get them out of here. They had a head start on the guards, but that’s not going to last for much longer. If they’re going to get off this planet, it needs to be now. But her friend has dealt with this situation enough times to know not to argue anymore, and whatever lecture he might say with his soft words will wait until after. 

Cassian’s hands aren’t as gentle as Bodhi’s. It’s not just the feel of his skin against hers. He holds too tight, throws his whole body into support. She’s not broken, or at least, she hopes she’s not, despite the persistent throbbing in her entire left leg. 

Adrenaline after the fall hadn’t lasted for very long, and she had found herself wedging between an old statue to catch her breath and force her leg to work when that _thing_ had picked her up by the back of her vest’s collar, dangling her like some kitten in front of Cassian. Kay, he had called it.

Even now she watches the droid warily. It’s an unsettling sort of creation, like a bored kid had melted its parts together and brought it to life. 

Cassian sets her down into a seat. “Strap in.” And then he does so himself. 

Kay follows suit, long legs resting out in front of him. “I don’t think this is such a great idea, Cassian.”

“It’s our only idea.”

Jyn raises her eyebrows and licks her lips as the ship jolts, taking a hit as it rises into the air. The guards were faster than she expected, but she knows that even with the might of this prison, there’s nobody around the planet’s atmosphere that’s going to come swooping in to kill trespassers. The First Order isn’t going to make itself known by hanging around here. Plus…

She’s got a feeling that the Warden is going to want both her and Cassian alive. 

There’s a silence that falls as they break atmo and Bodhi lets them know he’s set a course for hyperjump. They usually leave a trail of a few jumps before turning it around and making it back towards the Resistance base. In case they’re followed. 

This time, it’s to make sure that their new companions have no idea where they’re going. 

Jyn grits her teeth as another shot of pain shoots through her leg. It makes her feel nauseous. She has to close her eyes for a second, and only hopes that this isn’t the turning point, and her new best friend isn’t about to shoot her through the gut. 

She lives another second, and then the next. 

When she opens her eyes again, Cassian’s staring at her, a frown overtaking his face. She’s used to his more minute and quiet expressions and wonders if maybe exhaustion has finally taken hold of him. 

“Why were you sent to assassinate the Warden?”

“What information were you looking for?”

And just like that, silence again. 

It wraps around her like a thin blanket until a fog settles in her head. Her chin dips forward and hits her chest. Cassian says something, or maybe it’s the droid, but it doesn’t matter. She’s out the second her eyes close once more. 

* * *

Cassian slips into the cockpit after telling Kay to watch the girl, and he doesn’t give his friend enough time to complain about it before he’s gone. That’s the best way to handle Kay sometimes. Tell it what to do, and then leave no room for whining. 

The pilot looks up. His expression switches from concern to wariness, as if he expected Jyn instead. 

Cassian slips into the other seat without invitation. “Is she always like this?”

“Jyn?”

He gives a short nod. 

The pilot sits back, but his posture is still stiff, not necessarily unwelcoming but not friendly. It’s smart, to not trust him. If he was somebody else, he wouldn’t trust him either. 

“Since the day I met her. She has limits, but she ignores them.” The way the pilot says it means that Cassian is a limit that was ignored. It’s not angry. The tone is more confused. 

“She doesn’t rescue people often?” Cassian asks.

“Rescues, kidnaps, coerces. Sure. But they’re usually - well, we don’t typically break people out of prison.” The man pauses before glancing at Cassian again. “Not a very secure prison, if you ask me, for something so formidable.”

“Most people don’t decide to take a day trip to Moraband,” he responds. 

“I miss being most people,” the pilot mutters under his breath, but Cassian still catches it.

And despite himself, there’s a small crook of smile that splays across his mouth. “I’m Cassian. My friend is Kay.”

“Friend? Oh, you mean that monstrosity.” The man’s brow furrows deeply over dark eyes, thin shoulders almost whipping around completely as he glances down the hallway of the ship into the cargo holding where Kay _should_ be watching Jyn. “I’m Bodhi.”

Right. Cassian remembers Jyn using that name on the comm before they separated. Bodhi, her pilot. 

“Is she okay?” Bodhi finally asks. 

“With Kay?”

“In general.”

“Her ankle is beat up pretty bad, but otherwise seems intact. She fell asleep.”

Bodhi nods. “There’s a medical station, to the left of the hall.” He glances at Cassian. “You might need something for yourself. And, uh. Clothes.”

Cassian remembers, now that they adrenaline has lifted from the escape, that he’s not exactly naked, but not really in a fit state for public viewing. “Thank you.”

The air seems to lift a little as Cassian makes his way back out of the cockpit. There’s security in that, in getting people to trust you. They shouldn’t, of course, but the sooner him and Kay are away from these two, the better off all of them will be.

Especially since he had failed. He had left Moraband without completing his contract, and his employer would be none too happy. More to the point, the Warden wouldn’t be either. Nateva Krills was, by all accounts, a monster. But it wasn’t the reason he had been sent to kill her. It made for a good reason, though.

No, causing instability in Moraband was the bigger shot. It’d be a ripple in the First Order, his employer had said. She needed a ripple, to crawl her way back to the top. People talked too much, Cassian realized. People who hired assassins? They talked the most. 

He doesn’t ask why Bodhi and Jyn keep spare clothes in what looks like the world’s smallest clinic, but they’re obviously trained. Not soldiers. Soldiers don’t operate the way they do. Spies, maybe. Bodhi had mentioned something about information, and Jyn was quick to shut him up. If they were spies, neither of them were very good ones.

 _Then again_ , he thinks to himself as he tugs on a too small shirt with a sigh, _what assassin gets himself thrown into the very prison he’s meant to destabilize?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did Jyn find in the Warden's prisoner logs? Will Cassian's employer be exposed? Will Bodhi ever be free of violent people? Tune in next time to find out!


End file.
